Eisner made several great points in chapters 3 & 4. I felt like he was going over a list of basic but essential ideas and attitudes that they teacher needs to embrace (also a great reminder). I once again found myself ping off things we had talked about in Studio class or things that would be beneficial to me in the studio class. I really enjoyed Eisner's evaluation of the materials we use, "This doing represents a transformation of a material into a medium. Materials become media when they mediate... They mediate the aims and choices the individual makes." (Eisner 2002) When I make art other than for my students I don't typically let the supplies lead my art making decisions, but after a lot of thought in this matter, I am interested to see what changes I can make in my curriculum by simply changing the medium, and how this decision will affect the outcome of our projects.
For a good portion of the reading I kept thinking how I would enjoy being a fly on the wall of other's art rooms... see how they speak with students etc. "What a teacher says to assist a student can either advance or undermine they student's ability to solve the problem at hand."(Eisner 2002) I am constantly interacting with my students, but I am concerned that sometimes conversations we have may lead them in the wrong direction. I know that this knowledge comes with time, I feel that I'm much better than I was when I started three years ago, but i also remember how I felt when the conversation didn't go well with my teachers in school. It would be interesting to see maybe a documentary simply on the discussion of art with younger students, outside of VTS.
Eisner also offered an interesting thought process on what kinds of environments we create for students, we need to create an environment where they can create, risk take and learn from their failures. His example of using Mars as a creative place for students to think about being, allows students to create without a lot of preconceived image of "exactly" what something should look like- they can be more creative without that fear of failure. The last thing that really stuck with me was this quote: "We need to treat teaching as a from of personal research." (Eisner 2002). This part of the chapter was interesting about how teachers find ways to make their job professionally easier and then get stuck in a rut, well this describes 1/2 of my department well, many are not risk takers, they are waiting for retirement-ers. It is has be so important to my journey as an artist and especially my journey as a teacher to stay fresh on the new things happening in the art world. I like this idea of treating my career as my education- forever learning. This idea may need to be given and remind so many teachers out there about the gifts of teaching.
More from the reading to come later- I need to make better sense of the late night readings before I post.
I think your comment on how many of your colleagues are not risk takers is very true about many teachers. It we are not willing to take a risk how can we expect out students to?
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